, 1887-11-11
ON THE GRADE.
Over $50 Men Working Near Lake
Minnehaha.
Work Being Pushed With EqdaI
Vigor Elsewhere.
Iron Mountain Stone In the C. & B
Round HJuse.


All is activity on the Cheyenne & Bur
lington grade near this city. 1t is safe to
say that work was never more expedi-
tiously and vigorously prosecuted On u
similar undertaking in this country, and
bat few road beds are better constructed.
Fully $50 men are working within a quar-
ter of a mile of Lake Minnehaha. They
are assisted by over 200 horses. and are
using about seventy.ive dump scrapers. "
At the crest of the hill Immediately
west of the south end of Lake Minnehaha
the seeker for knowledge can observe the
most approved methods of excavating in
use by railway contractors. A heavy
plow, to which is attached eight large,
strong horses, loosens the earth for the
scrapers. A fifteen foot cut has already
been made in the top of the hill, and
thousands of yards of dirt are yet to be
removed. An expert driver urges for
ward the eight horses attached to the
breaker" when that implement collides
with a hidden obstruction in the shape of
a buried bowlder or strikes an unusually
compact and hardened bed of yellow clay.
1t requires the arduous efforts of two
strong men to hold the heavy pillow in
position and guide its course. The driver
turns his eight horses in the narrow
channel as easily as the bicycle rider
guides his steel steed along the smooth
streets of the city.
Luck, or the kind fates, have so ar
ranged affairs that in close proximity to
each point on the line of the Cheyenne &
Burlington near the city, where it was ne
cessarY to make a deep cut, a depression
e1is ted, materially lessening work for the
contractors.
The new Cheyenne & Burlington round
house, under the personal supervision of
Contractor Peterson, is rising into the air
with the steady growth peculiar to all
structures erected in the Magic City.
The ash pits are nearly completed. Win
dow frames for the rear of the edifce
were placed in position yesterday. Car
penters, bricklayers and stone masons vie
with each other in doing rapid and thor,
ough work in their different branches.
The cry for brick" stone and
mort silence the song of the hammer.
A large force of men is engaged in
e%xcayating on the site of the large turn
table to be placed near the building de-
signed to shelter locomotives. The earth
is carted away in two wheeled vehicles
drawn by lean mules and dumped in the
lake. Work on the stone foundation for
the circular adjunct to the round house
will commence in a few days. Upon its
completion the machinery will be placed
inside and the wood work and timbers
over the opening.
A LEADER representative asked Con
tractor Peterson if he had sampled the
car load of Iron Mountain stone submit,
ted to him for trial. The gentleman
stated that the product Of the newly
opened quarry far exceeded his expecta,
tons. He had already used a greater
portion of the consignment and found il
vastly superior to the building material
from the Stout quarries at Fort Collins.
A structure built of this material and
trimmed and faced with Rawhide marble
would make a most beautiful edifce, and
it is expected that many buildings of this
character will adorn the streets of Chey.
enne in a few years. Southeast Of
the lake another large force of men is
cutting away the side of a hill. The earth
is very hard and the work does not pro.
gress so rapidly as it would under more
favorable circumstances, but the grade
will be completed ere the track layers
reach this point.
1t is now officially stated that the end
of the track is now a trife less than
twenty miles from Cheyenne, and that
Cheyenne & Burlington locomotives will
whistle within the city limits in less than
thirty days. In this connection THE
LEADER again suggests that early action
be taken with a view to royalty celebrating
the completion of the line which places the
Magic City in communication with the
garden region of Nebraska.
Cardigan Jackets at 81